Halloween became a much more interesting holiday once I had a baby. I was really looking forward to dressing up my daughter, and online the costume choices were limitless - bunnies, sunflowers, a teeny Princess Leia - but the prices were limiting. I couldn't understand paying that amount of money for something she would wear once, and fit into for 5 seconds. (And no, this logic did not apply to my wedding dress, in case you were wondering).

Granted, looking back, my choice for that first costume wasn't the most conventional. Some might even say it bordered on sacrilege. I just thought "Hey, I bet I can make something for less than a dollar!" I'm not the crafty type. My sewing ability remains at the "re-attach a button" level. But what I lack in skill, I like to think I make up in resourcefulness. So, a few days before the big costume party, I took an existing cream-colored sleep sack and a diaper, added 39 cents of yellow felt with double stick tape, and there it was: Baby Pope. It was not a political statement, a religious statement, or a feminist statement. It was a costume. It was pretend. And Avery stood out among the adorable baby animals at the Halloween party. She really stood out. A lion, a koala, a tiger...the Pope? What was I thinking? My pride of having created something unique was replaced with a fear of having gone overboard. Oh no! She doesn't fit in! Will they not include her in their future applesauce and cracker soirees? Should I have dressed her as a kitten?

Now she's three-and-a-half, and she's been an animal every single day for at least a year. "Mama, I'm a puppy, I'm a cat, I'm a red-ruffed LEEEMUR!!" She can be an animal for many Halloweens to come. Baby Pope may have come from sleep-deprived new mama madness, but it was pretty fun (and inexpensive!) to figure out what I could do with what I already had.